A thought followed by assessing the surroundings. Luca seemed to be repeating the same thing he did when he was teleported to that hall. ‘I’m chained?’

On a wooden chair, chained from head to toe, Luca found himself in a less favorable situation than before. His head was the only thing that was free and moveable. The chair was placed on what seemed to be ground covered with white tiles.

‘Where the hell am I?’

‘’Welcome deceased number 98237273829827.’’ The soft yet hot voice of a woman echoed in his ears. Tingling every part of the body, it left a mark that wasn’t so pure. His face got red in mere seconds.

‘That voice! I think I’m in heaven.’

Born from being alone and longing for someone’s company, a thought made its home in his mind.

*sniff sniff*

‘Forget the voice, where did that stench go?’

Even though that voice aroused him, the smell became his main focus in an instant.

‘’Above you Mr. Luca Rosewood.’’ The voice came again.

Luca raised his eyebrows while moving his head slowly up, the sight that awaited his gaze took him by surprise.

A throne, made of gold and leather floating in the air, some 7 meters above. It was in front of Luca, not straight above or on the side. On that throne, a woman who appeared to be of 20 years of age, which was close to Luca’s age, was sitting. Wearing straps just to cover her private parts, white just like that space, and her hair, had a shade of pink just like her eyes.

The round broken in pieces ring that was floating behind her head made her look more celestial. This was the moment Luca smiled with all his heart, a tear came out of his right eye as these words left his lips.

‘’I’m dead, aren’t I?’’

‘’Bingo…’’ The woman clapped while smiling, ‘’and you won… nothing.’’

‘’Eheheh.’’ An embarrassed laugh made its way out of Luca’s mouth.

‘’Are you a goddess or something?’’

‘’yep!’’

‘’So what happens to me now?’’

‘’You are calm for someone who just died!’’ The woman snapped her fingers and a file appeared in front of her, ‘’usually, people go, ‘’why me?’’ ‘’Why now?’’ ‘’I died alone *sob sob*’’

Things like that, ya know.’’

‘Ouch, the dying alone part though.’

‘’Let’s see,’’ the woman opened the file and started reading it out loud, ‘’Luca Rosewood, age 22, male, college student, worked as a part-time bartender, parents divorced, romance non-existing, cause of death…’’

The face of the woman became red, cause - she was trying to hold her laugh. She struggled for a few seconds but soon she gave up. A burst of laughter and uncontrollable movement of her body in response to that laugh made Luca confused and sad.

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‘’Are you making fun of me?’’ Luca asked in rage.

She cleaned the tears from her eyes and replied most humbly and pleasingly, ‘’no… no… I just never heard of someone dying because of smell.’’

‘My dead soul is hurt.’

‘’If it’s that funny, you should go visit Glorus or whatever that world is called.’’

‘’Wait… aren’t you from earth?’’

‘’I was until those smell-loving arm lifters summoned me to their hell hole of a world.’’

‘’You don’t say,’’ A spark appeared in her eyes, showing her interest in that topic, ‘’that’s very interesting.’’

’I smell something bad.’

‘’What are you up…’’ before Luca could speak any further his lips were shut closed by a tape.

‘Great! One more part of my body I can’t use anymore.’

The woman placed a finger on her lips, gesturing Luca to stay quiet, ‘’shsssssh, can you stay silent for a few minutes.’’

‘Not like I have a choice.’ Luca nodded. Seeing Luca nod the woman vanished. ‘And… I’m alone now.’

************

‘12001 sheep flew in the sky.’

It’s been a while since the woman vanished, after waiting for her for some time, Luca started counting flying sheep in his head to kill time. He wasn’t able to move or speak so there wasn’t much he could do in terms of passing time or feeling less bored.

‘’Ha… haha… hahaha.’’

The Voice of that woman echoed in that space once again, though this time it wasn’t soft or pleasing in any way, it was full of evil intentions.

Luca moved his attention toward her, there wasn’t much difference in her appearance however, the file she was holding in her hand increased in size. What was just a few pages thin was now thick as a full-sized dictionary of a language.

‘’Mm….. Mmmmm…. Mmmmm…’’

Luca was trying to seek her attention, by humming and widening his eyes, but she was looking at the file with an evil smirk on her face. It was fair to assume that her attention wasn’t on Luca, it was the file that she held in her hand.

Luca got a disappointed look on his face, like how teachers see students when they are disrespecting them or didn’t pass a test for which they prepared them with all their might. Luca seemed to have given up on the idea of talking again, as a thought slowly made its way to his head.

‘Not being able to talk is better than going back to that world.’

This gave him the motivation he needed to stay quiet or stay calm even when he had been robbed of all his movements and ability to talk. He felt at peace like a monk praying and thanking the gods for what he has, not what he should have had.

While Luca was feeling like a saint, the woman placed the file on her lap, looked up, and yelled with both of her hands around her mouth.

‘’Yo Gaius… can you come down for a bit,’’ she paused to chuckle and then continued, ‘’I have something to show you, it’s messed up and funny.’’

Meanwhile, Luca maintained his saint-like form, with his eyes sparkling and a face that looked happy.

‘’Ah…’’ a bored voice replied, ‘’Hedona… if it’s about a rabbit eating carrots again then I’m not interested.’’

‘’No silly, I promised not to call you for that anymore,’’ Hedona chuckled again, ‘’it has something to do with the worlds we oversee.’’

‘’You can tell me,’’ Gaius sighed, ‘’after my shift ended, I don’t think I have any mana or energy left to come down in the white room.’’

‘’You sure? If we communicated like this other gods might hear it…’’ Hedona stopped and covered her mouth to hide her laughter, ‘’hint… it has something to do with Glorus.’’

‘’Wai… wait… wait, I’m coming down asap.’’

‘’It has something to do with Glorus.’’ These words echoed and reached the ears of Luca.

‘’Glorus…’’

Images of that hall and laughing men in robes flashed before Luca’s eyes.

‘’Glorus…’’

Somehow in his imagination, their faces were revealed, broken teeth, dirty faces, and drooling mouths, that’s what he saw as they lifted their arms.

‘’Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…’’ Humming was what others might think, but it was a scream born of fear.

Following that was a rapid movement of his body, trying to free itself from the chains, eyes as wide as they could open, and the vision in front of those eyes was of those men laughing and their wide-open arms.

He was unable to free himself, however, he fell to his left along with the chair, when his head kissed the ground he came back to his senses and saw the real picture of what was there in reality, Hedona and her evil smirk.

Hedona heard the bam and glanced at Luca who was on the ground but didn’t react to it, instead her glowing pink eyes were more focused on that file.